Method for interleaving data for seamless playback of multiple program versions having common material

ABSTRACT

A method for formatting digital data on an optical disk that represents at least two versions of the same program. Data sequences which are unique to each version and data sequences which are common to the two of them are interleaved in a single data stream. In order to achieve seamless play of both versions on a player that is compatible with the disk format but has limited buffer storage, data which would otherwise be common to both versions is placed redundantly in the data sequences which are unique to both versions.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/604,303, filed Feb.21, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,507.

This invention relates to the play of software (e.g., motion picture)carriers, and more particularly to a method for interleaving data on acarrier that allows both versions of the same program having commonmaterial to be played seamlessly.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,463,565, entitled "Data Block Format for SoftwareCarrier and Player Therefor," granted on Oct. 31, 1995 in the names ofCookson and Ostrover, which patent is hereby incorporated by referenceand hereinafter referred to as the "'565 patent," there is disclosed anoptical disk player that is capable of playing either of two versions ofthe same motion picture. The motion picture is represented on the diskas "compressed video" in the form of successive data blocks in a singletrack, with each block possibly containing video information, audioinformation, subtitle information, and the like. The '565 patentexplains how a huge quantity of data can be represented on a disk nolarger than the present-day audio CD. Not only is it possible to includesound tracks in multiple languages, but it is even possible to store twoversions of the same motion picture, e.g., R-rated and PG-rated.

Two versions of the same motion picture usually contain a great deal ofcommon material. This is especially true of R-rated and PG-ratedversions of the same program, but the same thing applies to otherexamples of multiple versions (at least two) of the same programmaterial. For example, the same disk might include teaching and testingmaterials, with common subject matter being included in both "versions."To minimize redundant storage of data, three types of data blocks areprovided in the same track, in an interleaved fashion--blocks whichcontain material unique to one version, blocks which contain materialunique to the other, and blocks which contain material common to both. Aseries of codes and pointers included in each block allow play of commonblocks when either version is being played, and play of blocks of onlyone of the two other types depending on which version has been selected;blocks which contain data unique to the unselected version are skippedover.

When more than one version of a program is to be derived from a digitaloptical disk system, there may be instances where mechanical and buffermanagement limitations would otherwise prevent seamless derivation ofthe alternate versions. The term "seamless play" refers to sufficientdata always being available in the necessary buffers to allow continuousplay, with no apparent interruptions, even though the player read headhas to skip over unselected data blocks. While the player read head isskipping over an unselected sequence of data blocks, data for theversion being played is furnished by buffers which were replenishedprior to the start of the jump. But if a sequence of data blocks thatmust be skipped is very long, then the read head may not be able toreposition itself in time to reacquire data for a particular buffer(video, audio, etc.) which has been emptied during the jump. In such,acase, by the time the read head repositions itself and starts toreplenish the empty buffer(s), the screen may have gone blank or thesoundtrack may have stopped.

The larger the buffers, of course, the greater the amount of data thatcan be stored in them, and the longer the allowable time for a jumpwithout the buffers becoming depleted. But there are practical limits tothe sizes of the buffers. For example, consider a motion picture where,after common material, the play branches to either a ten-minute segmentfor one version or a twelve-minute segment for another, following whichboth versions would include some more common material. Of foursuccessive block sequences stored on the disk, the first and last mightrepresent common material, and the two middle sequences might representrespective versions. During play of the disk, the read head must skipover a block sequence representing either ten minutes or twelve minutes.Such a large jump may require a longer time than one or more of thebuffers can sustain. In such a case, the play will not be seamless. Itis not practical to avoid this problem by saying that the buffers shouldbe larger because the additional memory may add significantly to thecost of the player and, within practical limits, there will always besome multiple version disks which just cannot be played seamlessly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a method for laying out, or formatting, datablocks on a disk for achieving seamless play of both versions of aprogram with common material. If a portion of the program to be skippedis too long, i.e., if the distance (measured in time or length) alongthe track over which the read head must skip is so large that the readhead cannot reposition itself in time to reacquire data for the relevantbuffer(s), then successive data blocks representing the two versions arechopped up into pieces and interleaved in the track. In this way, forexample, when version B is being played and the A blocks have to bejumped over, the A blocks are all short enough such that when the readhead exits a B block, the buffers all have enough data to allowcontinuous seamless play without any buffer being depleted by the timethe read head positions itself at the start of the next B block.

The problem with this simple approach is that the A data blocks may beso few or so short that they just cannot replenish the bufferssufficiently to allow jumps over the respective interleaved B blocks.Worse still is the possibility that there are no A blocks at all. Inother words, between two successive blocks or sequences of blockscontaining common (C) material, there may be a B segment but no Asegment. When playing version A, the read head must jump over the datablocks representing the entire B segment, and it just may not bepossible to accomplish seamless play from one common sequence to thenext common sequence when version A is being played and the B materialmust be skipped over.

The basic principle of our invention in such a case is to take thecommon material otherwise following the A material and to use it, in theexample just described, for A-version data blocks. When the A version isbeing played, therefore, there is material that the read head can accessprior to the jump over each succeeding sequence of version-B datablocks. But if common material is advanced in this way and storedinterleaved with the version-B data blocks, this common material will beplayed as part of version A before the read head even reaches the commonmaterial, and to play the common material from its start would result ina repeat of what was just seen. For this reason, the material at thestart of the common segment which is advanced and used as blocks for theA version is duplicated in blocks representing the B version, anddeleted from the common material. In this way, the read head will reachthe start of the remaining common material that has not yet been playedno matter which version is in progress. There,is necessarily a certaindata redundancy built into the disk formatting because common material,which really has to be stored only once in a common segment, is in factnot stored there and is instead stored twice--once in each of the twoversions. But the slight redundancy (which does translate into a smallloss in overall storage capacity) allows for seamless play of bothversions no matter how long a segment of material has to be skippedduring play of either version. An algorithm for controlling this "dataadvance" is described below. It is designed to minimize the degree ofredundancy.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description inconjunction with the drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 depicts symbolically the kinds of jumps that are required whentwo versions of the same program having common material are stored in asingle track;

FIGS. 2A and 2B are the same as respective FIGS. 7A and 7B in theabove-identified '565 patent, with FIG. 2A being a state diagram andlegend that characterizes the manner in which a disk player reads onlythose data blocks on a disk track that are required for the play of aselected version of a motion picture or other video presentation, andwith FIG. 2B depicting the way in which one of two alternate versionscan be played by following the rules illustrated by the state diagram ofFIG. 2A;

FIG. 3 is the same as FIG. 2 in the above-identified '565 patent and isa block diagram depiction of a disk player (including the severalbuffers whose understanding is required for an appreciation of thepresent invention);

FIG. 4 is a simplified diagram along the lines of FIG. 2B, and shows twocases in which buffer capacity does not pose a problem;

FIG. 5 is a diagram similar to that of FIG. 5 but, with relativelysimple changes, illustrates how long segments can give rise to play thatis not seamless;

FIG. 6 illustrates the interleaving method of our invention where thereis sufficient program material in both of the A and B segments betweentwo common (C) segments;

FIG. 7 is an extension of FIG. 6 but illustrates the interleaving methodof our invention when one of the two segments does not have enoughmaterial to allow the necessary interleaving;

FIG. 8 is yet a further extension of the pattern of FIG. 7 andillustrates an extreme case in which common material is redundantlyencoded just to allow jumps over other redundantly encoded commonmaterial;

FIG. 9 illustrates a still further extension of the interleaving methodof our invention and depicts an extreme case in which all of the commonmaterial in a common segment is redundantly encoded in data blocksrepresenting the two different versions;

FIG. 10 illustrates the block segments represented by the terms α andβ(α) as used in the flow charts depicting the method of the invention;

FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate two alternative mathematical relationshipsbetween the variables α and β(α);

FIG. 12 illustrates a system which can implement the method of thepresent invention and further shows several lists and source materialsto be described in detail below; and

FIGS. 13A and 13B illustrate the preferred method for redundantlyencoding common material to achieve seamless play of two versions of thesame material.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

The Problem Addressed By the Present Invention

FIG. 1 illustrates symbolically successive program segments that mayhave to be played when a selected one of two different versions of thesame program material is to be played. As shown, there are five (C)ommonsegments, all of which have to be played no matter which of the A and Bversions is selected. The upper row, labeled VERSION A, shows threesegments that are unique to version A. The segments that are played insequence for this version are CACACCAC. Version B, on the other hand,requires the play of different unique segments, as depicted in the rowlabeled VERSION B. In this case, the correct sequence is CBCCBCBC. Inboth cases, the arrows show the flow from segment to segment. The Csegments are common to both versions. It is the use of the commonsections that greatly reduces the amount of storage that would otherwisebe required for two different versions.

Although the various segments (each of which may be represented by manysuccessive data blocks) are shown in three rows in FIG. 1, typically allsegments are recorded in a single track of an optical disk or any otherequivalent storage medium. The segments, or data blocks, are not storedin parallel even though for the sake of clarity they are shown this wayin FIG. 1. Thus when there are alternate segments A and B between twosuccessive C segments, as illustrated at the left end of FIG. 1 and alsothe right end, it is necessary to store both of the A and B segmentsbetween the two C segments. Either of the A or B segments can be storedfirst, as long as the A data blocks are skipped when the B version isbeing played, and the B version data blocks are skipped when the Aversion is being played. This is illustrated most clearly in FIG. 2B, acopy of FIG. 7B of the above-identified '565 patent.

FIG. 2B shows a portion of the track with successive data blocks beinglabelled A, B or C. It will be understood that in practice there may bethousands of data blocks in succession of the same type, with most ofthe data blocks on the disk being of type C. However, to illustrate theway in which the system jumps over data blocks that are not required,FIG. 2B shows at most only two blocks of the same type in succession.There are two sequences shown in FIG. 2B, one at the top for playingversion B, and the other at the bottom for playing version A. If it isversion B that is selected, and it is assumed that somehow the B blockon the left is being played, it is apparent that the next two A blocksmust be jumped over in order to go to the fourth block, a B block. Afterthis block is played, the next A block must be jumped over. Two common Cblocks are then played, after which a jump must be made over an A blockto another C. The next block, a B, is then played, followed by B, C andB blocks. Finally, a jump is made over an A block to the last blockshown in FIG. 2B, a C block.

If version A is being played, on the other hand, two successive A blocksare played, there is then a jump over a B block, the next fiveblocks--ACCAC--are played, there is next a jump over two B blocks to a Cblock, and finally there is a jump over another B block to an A and afollowing C. The pattern which emerges is that there are three kinds oftransitions from one block to another. First, there is the play of ablock immediately following play of the preceding block. There are sevenexamples of this shown in FIG. 2B--AA, BB, CC, CA, CB, AC and BC. Thetwo possibilities which are excluded are AB and BA, since blocks uniqueto the two versions will never be read during the same disk play, muchless one after the other. While there are seven kinds of transitionsfrom block type to block type, there are really just three basicoperations--going from one block of any type to the next adjacent blockof that type; a jump from either an A to an A or C, or from a B to a Bor C; or a branch from a C block either to an adjacent A or B, or to a Bor A somewhere down the line. Most transitions are of the first type.The second type occurs when an A is followed by a B (which two blockscan never be played in succession); a jump must be made from the A toeither another A or to a C. Similar remarks apply to a B followed by anA. The third type occurs at the end of the play of a C block, when thereis no longer any common material to be played and a switch must be madeto one version or the other; the next block is played if it is part ofthe version selected, or some blocks will have to be jumped over if thebranch is to a block in the other version.

FIG. 2A shows the state diagram which defines how and when transitionsare made from one block to another. Every data block includes a two-bitpointer flag, possibly followed by a field which contains a 20-bitpointer. (When a pointer is present, it always points to the serialblock number of another data block.) Referring to the code given in FIG.2A, if the two-bit pointer flag is 00, it is an indication that theprocessing should continue with the next block; in this case, there isno need for a pointer. If the two-bit pointer flag is a 01 code, it isan indication that a jump should be made to a block in the same versionsome distance away, or to a C block some distance away. In either case,a pointer is necessary.

The codes 10 and 11 are used when a branch is to be taken from a commonC block. Which code is used depends on whether the next block is an A orB. If the block after the C is an A, code 10 is used and the pointer isto a B or a C further down the line. If the code is 11, it means thatthe next block is a B, and the pointer is to an A or a C further alongthe track. The operating system knows which version is being played. Ifversion A is being played and the current block has a 10 pointer flag,it means that the next block, an A, should be played after the presentone. There is no need for the pointer. The pointer is necessary in caseversion B is being played. In this case, since the next block is an A,it should not be played. The player should jump to the block identifiedby the pointer--either another C, or a B unique to version B beingplayed.

Similarly, if version A is being played and the current block is a Cwith code 11 for its pointer flag, it means that the next block is a B.Since version A is being played, the next block should not be playedafter the current one. Instead, a jump is made to the A or C blockidentified by the pointer. On the other hand, if version B is beingplayed, the system simply continues to the next block. The legend onFIG. 2A shows whether or not the pointer is used when 10 and 11 pointerflags are found in a C block. The representation 10(P) is an indicationthat the pointer should be used, and a representation 10[P] is anindication that the pointer should be ignored. It will be recalled thatthe 10 code is used for a C block when the next block is an A. Ifversion A is being played, the pointer is not needed. That is why atransition from the C block to the succeeding block, an A, is shown bythe symbol 10[P]. On the other hand, if version B is being played, sincethe next block is an A it cannot be played after the current C. Instead,there must be a jump to the block identified by the pointer and thus useof the representation 10(P)--the pointer points to either an A Block oranother C. Similar remarks apply to the representations 11(P) and 11[P].In both cases, it is a C block which is being played and the next blockis a B. If version A is being played, the next block should not beplayed and thus the symbol 11(P) is required to show a state transition.On the other hand, if version B is being played, it is the succeeding Bblock which should be played, and thus the symbol 11[P] is appropriate.

The four codes, as well as the usages (P) and [P], are depicted in FIG.2B. Referring to the PLAY B transition sequence, the first transitionshown is 01(P). It will be recalled that the 01 code represents a jumpfrom a block of one version to a block of the same version or to acommon block, and a pointer is required. The first transition shown is01(P), a jump from a B block to another B block. The next transition onthe PLAY B line is 10(P), a jump from a B to a C. Next is an example ofthe most common transition of all, 00, the orderly play of the nextblock after the current block.

The fourth transition in the PLAY B line is represented by a 10(P)symbol. The 10 code represents a branch from a C block when the nextblock is an A, the example illustrated in FIG. 2B. In such a case, asindicated in FIG. 2A, if it is version B which is being played a jump ismade to the block identified by the pointer--in this case, the next C.

The 11 code is used to identify a branch from a C block when the nextblock is a B. If version B is being played, the case underconsideration, the pointer is not necessary because the next block is tobe played. That is why the next code shown is 11[P]. There follow two 00codes that represent obvious transitions to adjacent blocks, followed bya 11[P] code, a branch from a C block to the succeeding block which is aB. Finally, a jump is made from this B block over the next A block to aC block. This requires a 01(P) code, the code used to jump from a blockof either version to a block of the same version or a common block.

The PLAY A sequence in FIG. 2B assumes that it is version A that isbeing played. The first four codes represent transitions to adjacentblocks, or a jump from a block of one version to a block in the sameversion. The next code, 10[P], is used to show a branch from a C blockto an adjacent A block. The pointer is not used since version A is beingplayed, and code 10 is employed because the next block is an A block.The next 00 code symbolizes the transition from the A block to asucceeding C block.

Next is a jump from a C block to another C block, skipping over two Bblocks. The 11 code is used because this is the code employed when a Bblock follows a C block. The symbol used is 11(P), not 11[P], becausethe pointer is required in going from one C block to a C block furtherdown the line. Similarly, the next code is again a 11(P) code tosymbolize a branch from a C block to an A block further down the line.The sequence in FIG. 2B ends with a transition from an A block to thenext block which is a C, for which the code 00 is used.

The state diagram of FIG. 2A summarizes all possibilities. Considerfirst the state in which an A block is being processed, represented bythe circle with an A in it at the upper left. The two-bit pointer flagin an A block is 00 if,the next block is also an A (shown by thetransition from A back to A). If the next block is a B, on the otherhand, then it clearly should not be played. There must be a jump fromthe A block over the B, either to another A or to a C. In either case,the code is 10(P). The drawing shows both a jump over B (to another A),and a jump over B to a C. The only other transition from an A block isto the next block if it is a C. This is shown by the code 00.

There are four similar transitions shown for state B, i.e., when a datablock in version B is being read. The 00 code is used if the next blockis a B or a C. The 01(P) code is used when the next block is an A, andit is jumped over so that the system can next read another B or a C.

Transitions from a C block are more complicated because there are sevenof them, rather than only four as for each of the A and B blocks. If thenext block is also a C, the code is a simple 00--read the next block. Ifthe next block is an A and a jump must be made to another C, the code10(P) controls the jump over the A. Similarly, the code 11(P) controls ajump over a B to another C. It will be recalled that these two codes areused to control branches from a C block, depending on whether the nextblock is an A or B. In either case, if the next block is not to be read,it (and blocks like it) must be jumped over to the next C.

However, after reading a C block, it is also possible to read an A or aB. To read an A, one of the codes 11(P) or 10[P] is used. The 11 code isemployed when the next block is a B, in which case the pointer isrequired. The 10 code is used when the,next block is an A, in which casethe pointer is not used. Similarly, to read a B block next, either thecode 10(P) or 11[P] is used. The former is employed when the next blockon the disk is an A, and the pointer is required because this block mustbe jumped over. On the other hand, if the next block is a B, the code 11tells the system to go on to this next block, and in the process toignore the pointer because it is not needed.

Perhaps the most important point to recognize is one which is notapparent from the drawings, and that is that most blocks will contain 00pointer flags and no pointers. (The 00 code is the only one without afollowing pointer field.) That is because once a frame of either versionis being displayed, or once a frame of the common material is beingdisplayed, it is most likely that the next frame will be of the sametype. Consequently, a 00 code alone does the job. The net result is thattwo versions of the same motion picture can be stored on the disk, withthe user having the option of playing either (provided that it isallowed by any applicable parental lock), and only a tiny fraction ofthe total disk real estate is "wasted" by housekeeping bits that controltransitions from one block to the next block which is to be read afterit. This is in line with the underlying design philosophy of providingmaximum flexibility and as many options as possible, without undulywasting bits in the process.

The present invention is not concerned with the codes and pointers thatare required to jump from a data block of one type to a data block ofanother. It is assumed that the necessary pointers are placed in thedata blocks or in an appropriate table stored elsewhere. The presentinvention concerns how A-type and B-type data blocks are laid down(i.e., formatted) on the disk. In the earlier work it was assumed thatit is always possible to jump from one data block to another without anyinterruption in the program material being seen or heard. It turns out,however, that seamless play is not always possible. To understand whythis is the case, reference must be made to the elements of a typicalplayer. The player of FIG. 3 is the same as that of FIG. 2 of theearlier patent.

For a full description of the player, reference should be made to the'565 patent. It is sufficient at this point to appreciate thatinformation read from the data blocks is placed in respective buffers53, 55, 57 and 59. The information is read out of the buffers at thetime that it is actually processed for display or sound. Jumps over A orB data blocks are possible because, even though the read head is notreading any data while the jump is taking place, there is sufficientdata in all of the buffers to allow program material to continue to befurnished. As long as the jump has concluded and the read head hassettled on the proper track position before any buffer has beendepleted, seamless play is possible.

FIG. 4 illustrates symbolically two simple cases for which seamless playis no problem. In one case, between two common segments there is an Asegment (one or more data blocks) to be played, but no B segment. Thismeans that in order to play version A, the three groups of data blocksare a played continuously one after the other. (A rectangle labeled A, Bor C in any of the drawings represents a program material segmentwithout reference to the actual coding, or a single data block of theparticular type, or a group of successive data blocks of the particulartype, depending on the context.) To play version B, a jump is made overthe A data blocks. As long as the A data blocks are short, the buffersare not depleted by the time the read head leaves the first C block andenters the second. The drawing on the right side of FIG. 4 shows thetrack layout when one of two different segments must be played dependingon the version in progress. The two groups of data blocks, A and B, arestored in succession between the two common blocks. Depending on theversion being played, either the A data blocks are skipped or the B datablocks are skipped. Once again, as long as each sequence is short, thereis no problem in achieving seamless play.

The problem arises in the two cases shown in FIG. 5. The only differencebetween the comparable cases shown in FIG. 4 is that here the A segmentin the first case, and the A and B segments in the second, are all muchlonger. It may not be possible to jump over such long segments withoutdepleting the buffers. How long a segment can actually be jumped overwithout the play being interrupted depends on mechanical considerationsand the buffer management system employed. For an understanding of thepresent invention, it is sufficient to appreciate that there is somemaximum length segment which can be jumped over without an interruptionin play resulting. That value necessarily depends on the players forwhich disks are to be formatted. The present invention assumes thatthere is such a maximum length, as will be defined below, and the methodof the invention entails use of that value.

The Methodology For Achieving Seamless Play

The basic approach to achieving seamless play is shown in FIG. 6,although it will become clear that in many cases the technique shown inFIG. 6 is not sufficient by itself. The methodology is to take the A andB material (which can be thought of as program material or data blocks)between two successive common blocks, and to chop them up into smallerinterleaved sections. In this way, it is never necessary to jump over asection that is so long that one or more buffers may be depleted.

The upper part of FIG. 6 shows three tracks A, B and C. Of course, thereis only one track on the disk. Thus what is shown in the upper part ofFIG. 6 should be treated as a time-line diagram. When playing version A,the first C block is played, then the A block, and finally the second Cblock. Similarly, when playing version B, the first C block is played,then the B block and finally the second C block. What gets stored in thesingle track, however, is not the sequence CABC. Instead, the A and Bsegments are divided up into many smaller segments. This is shownsymbolically by the arrows in FIG. 6. The two C blocks are laid down,continuously, and between them there can be many alternating A and Bblocks. The middle part of FIG. 6 is a time-line diagram comparable tothat shown at the top, but with the material unique to the A and Bversions shown divided up into smaller segments and interleaved. Thefinal track lay-out is shown at the bottom of the drawing, and it isapparent that there are several alternating A and B data blocks betweenthe two C blocks. (Again, it is to be understood that while individual"blocks" are referred to in the above description, the descriptionapplies equally to multiple data blocks. Even each of the A and Bchopped-up blocks can be multiple data blocks. What is important is thateach of the A and B "rectangles" include a sufficiently small amount ofinformation, be it measured in data blocks, inches, seconds, or anyother convenient parameter, that allows a jump over the block without anapparent interruption in play as the result of buffer depletion.)

The B segment is slightly longer than the A segment. This means thatthere may be a little piece of B-version material left over. That smallsection is simply placed in the track after the four A blocks. There arethus five "little" B blocks and only four "little" A blocks. The firstblock laid down on the track is a B block so that the four A blocks canbe interleaved with the five B blocks.

The obvious problem with the simple approach of FIG. 6 is that there maynot be both an A version segment and a B version segment between the twocommon blocks. If there is only an A segment, then there is no Bmaterial to intersperse between A blocks after the A segment is choppedup. Conversely, if there is only B material, and it is long, there is noapparent way to break up that B material with A-version blocks so thatthe buffers can be replenished when the A version is being played andthe B material is being skipped over. The solution to the problem isshown in FIG. 7, which illustrates the basic methodology of ourinvention.

What is shown here is a B segment that is longer than an A segment.Obviously, the technique shown in FIG. 6 works satisfactorily even ifthe A and B segments are unequal in length, as long as one is notsignificantly longer than the other. The block lengths in FIG. 7 are notdrawn to scale, and it is not intended to show typical dimensions in thedrawings. The reason for this is that a very short segment of one typemay provide enough data for the buffers to allow a very long jump over asegment of the other type, and there is no way to illustrate this in apractical way in a drawing. Thus when looking at the several figures, itmust be understood that the block lengths are not "real" even inrelative terms.

As shown in FIG. 7, the A segment is divided into four blocks, and theyare interleaved with four comparable blocks derived from the longer Bsegment. But instead of the B segment being just a little bit longerthan the A segment as in FIG. 6, with the "left over" B materialfollowing the last A block, the B material is much longer in the case ofFIG. 7. A fifth B block is placed on the track after the four A blocks,this block being labeled B5 in the drawing. It is assumed that all ofthe blocks are as long as possible. In other words, all of the blocksshown on FIGS. 6 and 7 are maximum length in the sense that anythinglonger will result in play that is not seamless. As shown in the drawingthere is a bit more B material left over, but it cannot be stored aspart of block B5 because this would result in a total length whichcannot be jumped over without possible depletion of one or more buffers.

The remaining material in the B segment is laid down in the track asshown by block B6. But in order for block B6 to be skipped over afterblock B5 when version A is being played, there must be some A-typematerial stored in an A block between blocks B5 and B6. This material isnecessary for the read head to read in order to replenish the buffersprior to the jump over block B6. The problem is that there is no Amaterial left because it has all been used up in laying down the fourblocks at the beginning of the interleaved sequence.

For this reason, what is placed between blocks B5 and B6 for readingduring play of version A is a block of material C1 taken from thebeginning of the common material on the right side of the drawing. Thiscommon material must be read during play of both versions, so there isno problem in advancing it and placing it after the A blocks before thecommon material is actually reached. The material is simply picked up bythe read head when the A version is being played before the commonmaterial would otherwise be reached.

However, if common material C1 is advanced and placed between blocks B5and B6, and this material is read during play of the A version beforethe common segment is reached, it should not be read again in the Csegment because that would result in duplicate play of the samematerial. Therefore, material C1 has to be deleted from the commonmaterial. But if it is deleted from the common material, then it willnot be read when the B version is being played because the B versionstill requires that all of the common material be read. The solution isto take the material designated C1 and to advance it not just once, buttwice. The material is placed in the block sequence that is read duringplay of the A version, as just described, and also in the block sequencethat is unique to version B. That is why the C1 block is shownimmediately after block B6 in the data block sequence that is unique forversion B. In this way, the C1 material is read as part of the unique Asequence and the unique B sequence. Since it is read in both of theunique seguences, it is no longer necessary to include it in the commonmaterial that is formatted on the disk. For this reason, as shown at thebottom right of FIG. 7, the last part of the overall track segmentillustrated is the "remainder" so the common material--the original Csegment, less C1.

In a sense, the invention can be thought of as introducing "lily pads"on which the read head can "land" but immediately leave at the beginningof the jump to the next lily pad. Block C1 in the A-block sequence issuch a lily pad. It can be very short in that it must provide onlyenough data for the buffers to allow a jump over the succeeding block inthe B version. Each lily pad should be as short as possible because,since it is "borrowed" from the next common material and gets deletedfrom it, it must be duplicated in the material that is unique to theother version, and it is desired to keen the redundancy to a minimum.

The underlying assumption in FIG. 7 is that the C1 material which isadded to the material unique to version B following block B6 is so shortthat B6 and C1 together do not exceed the maximum block length which, ifexceeded, will prevent a seamless jump when version A is being playedand the read head jumps over the B6,C1 block. FIG. 8 depicts a case (a"continuation" of FIG. 7) in which the B segment is so much longer thanthe A segment that many pieces of the C material must be advanced toserve as lily pads in the block sequence that is unique to version A.This, in turn, means that they must also be included in the blocks thatare unique to version B, since any time common material is advanced itnecessarily results in redundant recording. What remains after B5 inFIG. 7 is so long in FIG. 8 that, together with all of the advanced Cblocks, the resulting B material exceeds the maximum length.

Another way of looking at the situation is that while in FIG. 7 block B6was at the end of the material unique to version B and block C1 could betacked on to it, this is not possible in the case of FIG. 8. Here, the Bsegment is so long that a maximum-size block B6 is required just forB-version material. Since all of the B segment material (including B7and B8) must be played before the common material, it is not possible totack block C1 on to the end of block B6. And once block B6 is recordedin the final track, another lily pad is required for play of version A.This lily pad is shown as C2, and it is placed in the final trackimmediately after block B6. The next part of the segment unique toversion B is shown as B7, and this material is recorded on the finaltrack immediately after lily pad C2. Still another lily pad C3, derivedfrom the common material, is required before the last part of the Bmaterial, block B8, is laid down.

As discussed above, whatever material is advanced from the commonsegment and used in data blocks unique to version A must also be storedin the data blocks unique to version B. Material C1 should comeimmediately after material B8 when version B is played. This is shown inFIG. 8. Similarly, C2 must follow C1, and C2 could be part of the datablock which includes B8 and C1, except that C2 cannot be tacked on tothe block which includes B8 and C1 because to do so would give acombined block greater than the maximum length which will permitseamless play. In order to lay down material C2 (and C3) in the blocksunique to version B, it is actually necessary to introduce a fourth lilypad in the material unique to version A, material once again taken fromthe common material. This is shown by the small block C4. But because C4is now advanced from the common material, the last data block forversion B includes C4 following C2 and C3. Finally, the common material,less blocks C1-C4, is recorded for reading during play of both versions.

The interesting thing about the sequence of FIG. 8 is that commonmaterial C4 is recorded twice in each unique data block sequence onlybecause it is necessary to include one last lily pad in the sequence forversion A just in order to be able to record common material C2 and C3in the material that is unique to version B. But the method of theinvention does not concern itself with why common material is beingtaken out of a common segment and duplicated in the two unique versions.The system simply advances material whenever it is required in order tolay down a lily pad that will permit another jump. And anything recordedfor one version must be recorded for the other.

The last case to consider is that shown in FIG. 9. It was assumed inFIG. 8 that there was unlimited common material which could be advancedto serve as lily pads for one or both of the two versions. The last suchsegment in FIG. 8 was C4. But in the example of FIG. 9, the commonmaterial is much shorter and segment C4 does not even equal the minimumlength required for a data block. While thus far reference has been madeto the maximum length (the length beyond which a seamless jump may notbe made), there is also a minimum length. Some finite time, or length,must be allowed for the data in a sequence of data blocks to at leastpartially load the buffers before a jump is made. [In actual practice,very small lengths may allow jumps, but the jumps may be too small to bepractical. In the illustrative flow chart to be described below, theminimum length used to test "remainder" C4 is one defined as α_(opt)even though it is not the absolute minimum that could be used.] It isjust not feasible to lay down too short a data block if it is to serveas a lily pad. Consequently, if the remaining C4 material is too shortto function as a self-contained data block for version A, something elsemust be done with it. And the required lily-pad material must come fromsomewhere. What is done is shown in FIG. 9.

Following the common material of which C4 is the last piece, there isanother A segment (which may have no data), another B segment (which mayhave no data, although at least one of the A and B segments has data),and a following C segment. The remaining piece C4 of the first commonblock is simply transferred to both of unique sequences A and B, and thenext common material is used as the source for any other lily pads thatare required.

Referring to FIG. 9, the sequence in progress (as shown, for example inFIG. 8) has no more A material left; it will be recalled that the Cmaterial is being used for each lily pad that is required in data blocksfor version A. So the remaining C4 material which is common to bothversions is simply added to the start of the next A material since itmust be played before the next A material. This is shown at the bottomof FIG. 9 where C4 is placed before the next A material. (What is shownin FIG. 9 is not how the last three segments A, B and C are laid down onthe disk, but rather how they are re-formulated before the interleavingmethodology of FIGS. 6-8 is next employed.)

The same C4 material is not similarly laid down at the start of the nextB segment. The reason for this is that there is still some B material inthe segment being processed that has not yet been laid down on the disk.The B material which still must be processed is the tail end of the Bsegment which was being laid down, blocks C1-C3 which have to follow itand have not yet been laid down, then the little piece C4 which must beread after blocks C1-C3, and finally the next B segment. Thus what thesystem has to "work with" are three new upcoming segments--the next Asegment with C4 at it start; a B segment which consists of B8, followedby C1-C4 and the next full B segment; and the following C segment. Ineffect, the next three segments are reconstructed not in the sense thatthe material is laid down on the disk as it is shown in FIG. 9, butrather in the sense that this is the material which is available for thesubsequent processing of the type shown in FIGS. 6-8.

In summary, the C4 material cannot be formatted on the disk by itselfbecause it is too short. It is apparent that it belongs at the start ofthe next A segment because the common material in the current segment isalmost finished being processed and there is just this one last piece toinclude with the material that must be played for version A. As forversion B, it is still necessary to process block B8 and it has alreadybeen determined that after B8 there should follow C1, C2 and C3. It isfor this reason that the new "supply" for the B version, as shown onFIG. 9, consists of B8, followed by C1-C4 and finally the next Bsegment. What FIG. 9 is intended to show is that any material that isadvanced from a common segment for recording in data blocks unique toversion A (or version B, as the case may be) must be reserved forrecording in the data block sequence that is unique to the otherversion, but it cannot be so recorded until the material remaining forthat version is recorded along with the earlier advanced common datablocks.

As processing continues, eventually a point is reached at whichrecording of the type shown in FIG. 6 is possible and no furtherredundancy must be introduced. This will become apparent when the flowchart is analyzed.

Optimal and Maximum Block Lengths

Before proceeding with the flow chart that sets forth steps for actuallycontrolling formatting of the track, the symbols α and β shown in FIG.10 must be understood. The symbol α represents what has been called alily pad. The symbol β represents a block that has to be skipped in oneversion and, by reading the data contained in block α (in the versionbeing played), there is material in the buffers available for play asthe read head skips over section β. (Terms such as segments, blocks andsections are used interchangeably since a segment or section may be oneor many blocks.) While α and β are simply two successive lengths, thesymbol β(α) represents the maximum length β over which a seamless jumpmay be made after reading a block of length α. Referring to FIG. 11A, ifthe relationship is linear, it is apparent that the longer section α,the longer the succeeding section β can be because there is more dataavailable in the buffers as a result of reading more α data. However,even as a grows, β does not grow indefinitely. That is because there isa limit to how much data can be contained in the buffers. Once they arefull, that determines the longest β segment that can be jumped over.That is why in FIG. 11A there is a maximum value for β(α) no matter howlarge α becomes. Once the buffers are full, by the time the read headleaves section α the length of the maximum seamless jump is determinedby the capacity of the buffers.

If α is redundant material advanced from a C segment, there is no reasonto increase α beyond the value at the knee of the graph which gives riseto the maximum β(α), the value of the ordinate along the horizontal lineof the graph. The lowest value of α which gives rise to the maximumvalue of β(α) is a α_(opt). When creating a lily pad whose sole purposeis to allow a jump over the succeeding data blocks when the versioncontaining the pad is being played, there is no reason to use a lily padwhich is longer than α_(opt). Every lily pad introduced from commonmaterial results in redundancy, and redundancy should be minimized.

It should be noted that the maximum value of β(α) is actually shown asα_(max). The reason for this is that if the maximum value of β(α)represents the longest segment which can be recorded on the track forseamless play, then that same maximum length applies to either of twosuccessive sections. Every data block of one type precedes a data blockof the other type in the interleaved sequence, so that each section isboth an 60 and a β. Consequently, the maximum length of a block sequencecan be referred to as α_(max), i.e., no data block sequence unique toone version should exceed α_(max) in length.

Assuming a linear relationship between α and β, a typical transfercharacteristic is shown in FIG. 11A. As the length α of a data block (ordata blocks) increases, the maximum length of the succeeding data blockβ(α) which can be jumped over increases. However, every data block islimited in length to α_(max). Suppose, for example, that there is muchmore B material that has to be placed on the track than A materialbefore the next common material. In such a case, the goal of theinterleaving is to have small A data blocks and large B data blocks.Every small A data block whose length is α allows a longer B data blockto be recorded, the length of the B data block being β(α). The optimallength for each A data block is that which gives the largest ratio ofB(α)/α. The optimal value of α--α_(opt) --is that which provides themaximum ratio and it is labelled in FIG. 11A. In the case of anon-linear relationship, as depicted in FIG. 11B, the value of α_(opt)may not necessarily be at the knee of the curve. In both cases the goalis to use successive α and β lengths that maximize the ratioβ(α_(opt))α_(opt). Laying down the data blocks using these lengths usesup the longer version material as fast as possible while minimizing theamount of common material which may have to be advanced in order to thederive the α segments.

The Applicable Lists Used by the Hardware

FIG. 12 illustrates how the method of our invention may be implemented.A controller 100, typically a microprocessor, directly controls arecording device 102. The input information furnished to the controlleris a standard Edit Decision List which specifies the sequence (usuallyin Groups of Pictures, or GOPs), in unit lengths, of the series ofsegments required for the two versions as shown in FIG. 1. The actualdigital source material for the three kinds of segments (version-A,version-B and Common) are in three digital stores 104, 106 and 108. Thecontroller causes one of the three sources to output material to berecorded thorough the respective gate 110, 112 or 114, also undercontrol of controller 100, for extension to recording device 102.

The controller maintains three lists which identify the next availabledata for each source. The lists are identified by the symbols R(A),R(B), and R(C). Each list is nothing more than the representation of arespective one of the upcoming A, B and C segments, as discussed forexample, in connection with the segments shown at the bottom of FIG. 9.As will be discussed in connection with the flow chart, the three listsare updated during successive iterations. Each list at all timesrepresents upcoming information for one of the three kinds of data thatmust be recorded. List R(C) includes all common material in the segmentbeing processed, from the next material to be laid down until the end ofthe segment. If the system is processing A and B segments, R(C)represents the full following c segment, pieces of which may have to be"borrowed" (advanced, as discussed above). Lists R(A) and R(B) representA and B segments being processed. If a C segment is being processed byitself, R(A) and R(B) are empty--they are updated at the end of the Csegment processing when new A and B segments are reached. The controlleruses the information on the Edit Decision List to update the "NextAvailable Data" lists R(A), R(B) and R(C). Each list identifies in therespective digital source material what data should be read out tocomplete recording of the segment being processed.

The Flow Chart of FIGS. 13A and 13B

FIGS. 13A and 13B depict the flow chart that implements the formattingdiscussed in connection with FIGS. 6-9. Referring to FIG. 1, at thestart of any two-version motion picture, their is almost always a commonsegment--the title is the same in all cases. Thus, initially there isonly common material with which the system has to work. The threefunctions R(A) R(B) and R(C), as discussed in connection with FIG. 12,represent lists of data that are immediately available. By "immediatelyavailable" is meant the data that next has to be formatted on the disk.The R(C) list includes all of the remaining data in the common segmentbeing processed that has not yet been formatted on the disk, or theentire common segment that follows A and B segments that are now beingformatted if processing of the preceding common segment has already beencompleted. There must always be a "supply" of common material that canbe advanced in case lily pads are required, and toward this end thesystem keeps track in list R(C) of all or part of one common segment.

The R(A) and R(B) lists, on the other hand, can be empty. If a commonsegment is being laid out on the disk, there is no A and B material thathas to be processed. It is only at the end of the processing of a commonsegment that new A and B segments become available (one of which may benon-existent, in which case its list is empty--symbolized, for example,by the notation R(A)=0). There is no need to maintain a list of the nextA and B segments that must be processed until they are actually reached.There is a need to maintain an R(C) list at all times, however, evenwhen only A and B segments are being formatted on the disk, because itmay be necessary to use a piece of the following common material as alily pad.

In step S1, since initially there is only common material to beprocessed, R(A) and R(B) are both set to zero. At the same time, R(C) isset equal to the data for the first common segment.

The variable L(X) where X=A, B or C, represents the data which actuallywill be laid down on the disk in the current iteration. (All referencesto laying down data on the disk can include an intermediate step ofstoring the formatted data on tape or in memory, and then--at a latertime--actually creating a master from which copies can be made.) Thereare limits to how much data can be laid down; the basic premise of ourinvention is that for seamless play there is a limit to the length ofany segment over which a jump may be necessary. But there is no limit tothe length of a common segment since no jump is required over such asegment. Consequently, in step S2, L(C) is made equal toR(C)--everything that is in the first common segment is placed in listL(C), L(C) representing the data that is to be put on the disk in thecurrent cycle. (The data itself is derived from one of the digitalsources 104, 106, 108 on FIG. 12, the three respective lists simplypointing to the material which is to be processed.)

The next sub-step in step S2 is to format L(C). This simply means thatthe data represented in L(C) is retrieved from the respective source andplaced on the disk.

Since R(C) initially represented the entire first common segment and itis all now on the disk, R(C) must be reset to 0. This is done in thelast sub-step. At the end of step S2, all three lists are empty. Thefirst two steps boil down to nothing more than formatting the firstcommon segment, i.e., placing all of the data representing the firstcommon segment of a motion picture on the disk using whatever codes,pointers, data block formatting, etc. is employed in the particularsystem under consideration.

With the three lists now empty, they must be replenished from the EditDecision List (see FIG. 12). In step S3, the last sub-step is theeasiest to understand. With processing of a common segment having justbeen concluding, R(C) is replenished with data for the next commonsegment. But there are preceding A and B segments as well. While thefirst time step S3 is executed there is no prior "history" to take intoaccount, this is not always the case. This complicates what gets storedin R(A) and R(B).

Referring to FIG. 9, at the bottom is shown how the next available datalists are developed. There may be a little piece of R(C) (C4 in FIG. 9)that remains from the current C segment being processed. This piece hasto be added to the R(A) and R(B) lists. Only then does the next Asegment get added to R(A) and the next B segment get added to R(B).Thus, as shown in step S3, whenever the lists are updated by bringing innew segments of the program material, R(A) has added to its then"content" both the "left over" R(C) and the new material. Similarremarks apply to R(B). As for R(C), since it is now "losing" whateverwas left over in it, it is simply set equal to the next C segment.

In step S4, a check is made whether there is any more data to beprocessed. If there is no more data, then processing stops--all of thedata representing both versions of a two-hour motion picture, forexample, have been placed on the disk (or, as mentioned above, inintermediate storage in the proper format and sequence). Of course, theanswer to the question in step S4 will be in the negative the first timeit is asked, but this step is executed just after the start of each ofthe succeeding iterations. Eventually, there will be no A, B and Csegments left, and the processing will come to an end.

As indicated on the flow chart between steps S4 and S5, the remainder ofthe flow chart assumes that R(B) is greater than R(A). In other words,of two segments in different versions being processed simultaneously, itis assumed that the segment of version B is larger than that of segmentA. If the reverse is true, the notation in the flow chart should bereversed. It is easier to comprehend the methodology by assuming thatthere is more B data than A data for the two corresponding segments inthe different versions than it is to explain the methodology in moregeneral terms. All that is required in actual practice is, after initialupdating of the three lists, to include a test as to which of R(A) andR(B) is larger, and to treat the larger as R(B) in the flow chart andthe smaller as R(A).

No matter what the relative lengths of R(A) and R(B), since R(B) islonger it would appear that the maximum amount of data for the B segmentshould be laid down at the start of each iteration. There may be so muchB material that the required jumps may not allow seamless play withoutintroducing lily pads with the concomitant redundancy, so at the startof each iteration it certainly makes sense to "get rid of" as much Bmaterial as possible. As discussed above in connection with FIGS. 10 and11, the maximum length of a sequence of data blocks is the maximum valueof β(α), which can be written as β(α)_(max) and is the same thing asα_(max). Accordingly, this much data from the R(B) list may be placed inL(B) for immediate lay-down. In fact, the entire segment represented inR(B) can be laid down if it does not exceed α_(max). This is determinedin step S5. If R(B) is small enough to be formatted in its entirety, sois R(A) which is smaller. L(A) and L(B) are set respectively to R(A) andR(B). After they are formatted on the disc, the next common segmentrepresented by R(C) can be laid down, so L(C) is set equal to R(C). Allthree segments are then formatted and the three lists are nulled. Areturn is then made to step S3 where the lists are replenished.

Sooner or later, three new segments will be processed for which thesimple lay-downs of step S6 are not possible because R(B) is greaterthan β(α)_(max). At this point interleaving must be employed. It makessense to format a β block first, and of maximum length, in order todecrease any imbalance in R(A) and R(B). But if a large B block is laiddown, and there is then insufficient material in R(A) for an A block,the interleaving cannot even begin. So in step S7 a test is performed tosee if there is enough material available for an A block.

The question is how much material should be laid down in each block ofversion A. As explained above, when the B segment is much larger thanthe corresponding A segment, during every iteration some of the materialin the next common segment is transferred to R(A) so that a lily pad canbe placed on the disk for reading during play of version A. To minimizethe resulting redundancy (since the lily pad gets repeated in the blocksunique to version B), as much R(B) material should be processed for aslittle R(A) material that has to be "borrowed." The ideal R(B)/R(A)ratio is β(α_(opt))/α_(opt), called "Q" in the flow chart as will becomeapparent, so α_(opt) should be available, if needed, for an A block.Thus before the first B block of length β(α) is formatted, a check ismade that enough material will be available for an A block of lengthα_(opt) that will follow the first B block of length β(α)_(max) and willprecede the next B block of length β(α_(opt)). [It should be noted thatif the β(α) function is linear as in FIG. 11A, the first block of lengthβ(α)_(max) is of the same length β(α_(opt)) as the others.] The questionis how much material is in fact available for the next A block.Referring to FIGS. 7-9, what is available for an A block is what is leftin list R(A) plus whatever can be advanced (borrowed) from R(C). So instep S7, the sum is compared with the amount of data which will berequired for an A block--α_(opt). If there is insufficient data, noteven the first B block is laid down. Instead, a return is made to stepS3 so that all three lists can be changed--R(A) and R(B) are bothincreased by the small amount of data available for the next commonsegment, and then they each have their next respective segments added.Since the A and B segments have been extended, R(C) is simply set equalto the next C segment.

On the other hand, if in step S7 it is determined that enough materialis available (the sum of R(A) and R(C) is not less than α_(opt)), instep S8 the first B block--of maximum length--is finally laid down, andR(B) is reduced by the amount of data thus processed.

Starting in step S9, successive iterations begin, during which A,B blockpairs of optimal lengths α_(opt), β(α_(opt)) can be laid down. But theoptimal ratio is not always what is needed, as will now be explained.

A test is performed in step S10 to determine whether the current ratioR(B)/R(A) is less than or equal to Q. Since division by 0 is notpossible, in step S9 a check is made to see whether R(A) is 0. If it is,it is an indication that there is B material that has to be processedwith no corresponding A material, and in such a case the goal is to laydown as much B material as possible while keeping the lily pads--whichrepresent redundancy when there is no corresponding A material--to aminimum. In step S11, L(A) is set equal α_(opt) and L(B) is set equal toβ(α_(opt)). Referring to FIG. 11A, when a lily pad has a length ofα_(opt), β(α) is equal to the maximum value. In other words, by usingα_(opt) as the length of a lily pad, the following section (containing Bdata) can be the longest possible relative to the length of the Asection. The idea is to maximize the ratio β(α)/α so that as much Bmaterial can be used up while using as little A material as possible.

In step S10, assuming that R(A) is not equal to 0, the ratio of the dataremaining in the two lists R(B) and R(A) is formed, and it is comparedwith Q. Q is the ideal β/α ratio, β(α_(opt))/α_(opt), and represents thelargest data that can be laid out for the least "expense" in redundancyif any R(C) material has to be borrowed. If the ratio R(B)/R(A) is lessthan or equal to Q, it means that the A and B material can be laid downwithout borrowing any more lily pads from the following C segment--thereis enough A material to do the job. As shown in step S12, the next Adata that is laid out, L(A), is set equal to aopt and the next Bmaterial that is laid down, L(B), is set equal to the same lengthα_(opt) multiplied by the ratio of the remaining data in the two lists.In this way, as the process continues, α_(opt) is always taken from listR(A) for placement on the disk followed by an amount of data taken fromlist R(B) that is less than β(α_(opt)) but which will result in the Blist being depleted at the same time that the A list is depleted. Thedifference between steps S11 and S12 is that while the data L(A) placedon the disk for the shorter version is always set equal to α_(opt), thedata taken from the longer list for L(B) may not be the maximum thatcould be used for a seamless jump. If there is a great deal of B data,then L(B)=β(α_(opt)). But if there is less, then less data is taken fromlist R(B) as shown in step S12.

By the time step S13 is reached, the system has determined the valuesfor L(A) and L(B). The length of L(A) is always made equal to α_(opt)and the data is taken from the R(A) list; L(A) is set without evenchecking that there is any data available in the R(A) list because instep S7 it was determined that, if needed, R(C) has enough data. In stepS13, a check is made to see if there is enough data in R(A) by itself tofulfill the L(A) requirement. The test in step S13 checks whether thedata remaining in R(A) is at least equal to α_(opt). If there is enoughdata in R(A) to fulfill the L(A) requirement, then step S14 is skipped.Otherwise, step S14 is executed. It is in this step that material fromthe next C segment is advanced and treated as data unique to version Afor being laid down as a lily pad in the data block sequence that isread during play of version A. For the reasons discussed in connectionwith FIGS. 7-9, it is also necessary to take the same material derivedfrom the next C segment and include it in the material that is uniquefor version B--the basic operating principle of the invention is thatwhenever material is advanced from a C section for use as an A-materiallily pad, that same material must be included in the data that is uniqueto version B. After the check is made in step S13 whether R(A) is emptyor, even if it has some data, does not have enough to fill the L(A)requirement, the difference A between R(A) and L(A) is formed. In thesecond sub-step, A is added to R(A) so that R(A) now has enough data tosatisfy the L(A) requirement. Next, the same amount of data taken fromthe R(C) list is added to the R(B) list because it must be included inthe material unique to version B. Finally, the material advanced fromthe C segment is deleted from the R(C) list because it will have alreadybeing laid down--twice--during processing of the A and B data.

The sub-steps of step S14 are symbolized in FIGS. 7 and 8 which show Cmaterial being advanced and included in the unique sequence for eachversion. This is were the redundancy comes in--a section of commonmaterial is deleted, but it is recorded twice instead. That is the pricethat must be paid for deriving a lily pad which would otherwise notexist, the lily pad serving as a jumping off point for the skip over thefollowing data block that is unique to version B.

Thus in steps S13 and S14 it is determined whether there is enoughmaterial in R(A) to support L(A); if there is not, then R(A) isincreased (along with R(B)) in step S14, and at the same time R(C) isdecreased. A different kind of check and possible correction is requiredfor L(B). The amount of data to be placed on the disk in a block uniqueto version B is determined in step S11 or S12. In step S15, a check ismade to see whether there is enough data in the R(B) list to supportL(B). If there is, a jump is made to step S17. On the other hand, ifR(B) is less than L(B), then there is not enough data left in the Bsegment being processed to support the last block, represented by L(B)which is supposed to be placed on the disk. However, there is no needfor R(B) to be increased in such a case. L(B) is simply made shorter instep S16; L(B) is set equal to R(B), the data remaining for the currentB segment being processed. Any practical system has a minimum blocklength. When it comes to the block length for the version having lessdata in the A,B segment pair being processed, a length equal to α_(opt)is always used, as explained in connection with steps S11 and S12. Thatlength will necessarily exceed the minimum length, the minimum lengthbeing seen on FIG. 11A to be less than α_(opt). But there is no need fora minimum length for the last block that is unique to version B. That isbecause this block is placed on the track immediately before thefollowing common data. The read head when playing version B, jumps tothe start of the last short B data block, and reads through this blockand continues on to the next C block. And when version A is beingplayed, the jump is made to the start of the common material, just afterthe short B block. Since a jump is not taken from the last B block,there is no minimum length requirement. Consequently, instead ofincreasing R(B) in step S16 to accommodate L(B), which would beanalogous to what is done in step S14 for the A version, L(B) is simplyreduced in step S16 to equal the remaining data in the R(B) list.

By the time seep S17 is reached, R(A) has been increased, if necessary,in step S14 by a little bit of C data, and the two data blocks to now beplaced on the disk, L(A) and L(B), have also been determined. In stepS17, R(A) and R(B) are both reduced by the respective amounts of datathat are being placed on the disk, and the data in L(A) and the data inL(B) are formatted.

The easiest way to understand the processing from this point is toconsider the usual case in which there are alternate segments A and B tobe processed. If B starts off much larger than A, L(A) and L(B) are setin step S11 to maximize the amount of B material that is placed on thedisk relative to the A material in the preceding block. In this way, theratio R(B)/R(A) keeps decreasing. Eventually, if the inequality in stepS10 is satisfied, then in step S12 L(B) is set to a lesser value than itis in step S11 during the remaining processing of the A and B segmentsunder consideration. The ratio used in setting L(B) in step S12 isdesigned so that the R(A) and R(B) lists are depleted simultaneously. Inthat case, in step S18, R(A) and R(B) will both be depleted during thesame iteration. On the other hand, if B starts off so much larger thanA--for example, there may be no A segment corresponding to a Bsegment--then even maximizing the ratio of the data laid out for the β,αpair in step S11 may not result in R(A) and R(B) both becoming nulled inthe same iteration. What happens in such a case is that R(A) getsreduced to 0, assuming that it did not start there in the first placewith the processing of a B segment that has no corresponding A segment,and it takes longer for R(B) to be depleted to the point where there isno data left in the list (represented by R(B)=0 in step S18). Thus, R(A)is always depleted either during the same iteration with R(B) or anearlier iteration, but never during an iteration following the depletionof R(B).

Let us first consider the case in which R(A) is depleted first. It willbe recalled that R(A) is increased in each iteration during step S14 sothat there is enough data in the list to fill the L(A) requirement. Butin the same step R(A) is depleted once again as the data is stored onthe disk. In such a case, the system must continue to lay down chunks ofthe B data while borrowing from the C segment for the A lily pads (andalso adding the borrowed material to the R(B) list that must beprocessed). While every execution of seep S18 reveals that R(A)=0, sinceR(B) is not 0 a branch is made to step S19. At this point in theprocessing, there is still B material that must be taken care of, andpossibly A material as well. But before the next iteration can begin, itmust be ensured that there is enough C material left in the R(C) list tosatisfy the next L(A) requirement. In other words, if an A block has tobe placed on the disk and the material for the lily pad has to come atleast partially from the C segment then being processed, there must beenough data left in the C segment for this to be accomplished. The testin step S19 is thus the same as the test in step S7. If there is enoughmaterial left in R(C) to satisfy the α_(opt) requirement, i.e., the sumof R(A)+R(C) is not less than α_(opt), then a return is made to step S9.Since there is enough available data, the iteration continues with stepsS9-S12, and the derivation of L(A) and L (B).

On the other hand, suppose that R(A)+R(C) is less than α_(opt). Thismeans that there is not enough data in R(C) to allow borrowing of anamount which when added to R(A) will equal α_(opt) during step S14. Areturn is made to the start of the main processing loop, step S3, whichimplements what is shown in FIG. 9. The last bit of the C material, C4in FIG. 9, is added to the end of the preceding A and B material left tobe processed. This can be done because the preceding C material (C1, C2and C3 in FIG. 9) has already been placed at the tail end of thepreceding A and B segments being processed. Even in the case of the Bsegment which has not been fully laid down, all that is necessary is toplace the last bit of the C segment at the end of what is already in theR(B) list. Placing C4 at the end of the current R(A) and R(B) istantamount to merging the current A segment (if anything is left in it)with the following A segment, and the current B segment with thefollowing B segment, since all of the C material separating them willhave already been accounted for. So as shown in FIG. 9, C4 is added atthe beginning of the next A segment, and it is added at the end of thecurrent B segment (R(B), which includes the preceding R(C) blocks C1-C3that were added to R(B)), following which the next B segment is added toR(B). Finally, R(C) simply becomes the next C segment.

The processing continues with outer-loop returns to step S3 andinner-loop returns to step S9. Eventually the processing ceases when instep S4 it is determined that there is no more data.

The invention has been described in terms of an illustrative embodimenthaving only two versions of a program. But the method of the inventionhas much more widespread utility. For example, consider a multimediadisc whose subject is American Presidencies and, following play of asegment on wars in general, a branch may be made to a segment on anyPresident in whose administration America was at war. The segments onRoosevelt and Truman may contain common subject matters at theirbeginnings and elsewhere and both segments may be far away from thesegment from which the branch is being taken. Common material may berecorded redundantly as described above to create lily pads for seamlessjumps to these two video segments, while the same thing is done forstill other paired-President video segments. There is no reason torestrict jumps over only two kinds of materials--there may be dozens oreven hundreds, and in both directions, if extensive branching based onuser selections are allowed. Similarly, three or more video segmentswhich share common material may have that common material recorded threeor more times in lily pads associated with the three or more individualvideo segments if necessary to allow for seamless branching. The commondenominator in all cases is that material which is common to at leasttwo programs or two program segments is redundantly recorded--at theexpense of "real estate"--in order to allow seamless play to take place.

While the focus herein has been on reducing redundancy to a minimum,some slack is allowable. It is not necessary to squeeze out everypossible millimeter of bit capacity. Thus, while the invention has beendescribed with reference to a particular embodiment, it is to beunderstood that this embodiment is merely illustrative of theapplication of the principles of the invention. Numerous modificationsmay be made therein and other arrangements may be devised withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for interleaving data on a recordingmedium for seamless play of at least two program versions A and B ofsource material, the medium being playable on a player having apredefined data buffer management system; the data representing A-typesegments of A-version source material, B-type segments of B-versionsource material, and C-type segments of source material common to bothof said at least two versions; and wherein data is to be interleaved onsaid medium to represent A-type and B-type paired segments disposedbetween successive C-type segments, with data representing C-typesegments being read no matter which version of the source material isbeing played and data representing only A-type or only B-type segmentsbeing read depending on which version of the source material is beingplayed; comprising the steps of:(a) dividing data representing eachA-type segment and each B-type segment in a pair into two series of datablocks; (b) interleaving in a single series the data blocks in the twoseries of step (a); (c) following the interleaved A-type and B-type datablocks of step (b) for a pair of A-type and B-type segments by datablocks representing just the following C-type segment; and (d) limitingthe lengths of the individual A-type and B-type data blocks to allow theplayer on which the medium is played to skip over A-type data blockswithout interruptions when version B of the source material is played,and to skip over B-type data blocks without interruptions when version Aof the source material is played.
 2. A method in accordance with claim 1wherein a series of interleaved data blocks begins and ends with a datablock representing the longer of the two segments in the respectivepair.
 3. A method for interleaving data on a recording medium forseamless play of at least two program versions A and B of sourcematerial, the medium being playable on a player having a predefined databuffer management system; the data representing A-type segments ofA-version source material, B-type segments of B-version source material,and C-type segments of source material common to both of said at leasttwo versions; and wherein data is to be interleaved on said medium torepresent A-type and B-type paired segments disposed between successiveC-type segments, with data representing C-type segments being read nomatter which version of the source material is being played and datarepresenting only A-type or only B-type segments being read depending onwhich version of the source material is being played; comprising thesteps of:(a) dividing data representing each A-type segment and eachB-type segment in a pair into a single series of interleaved datablocks; (b) limiting the lengths of the individual A-type and B-typedata blocks to allow the player on which the medium is played to skipover A-type data blocks without interruptions when version B of thesource material is played and to skip over B-type data blocks withoutinterruptions when version A of the source material is played; and (c)following the interleaved A-type and B-type data blocks by data blocksrepresenting just the following C-type segment.
 4. A method inaccordance with claim 3 wherein a series of interleaved data blocksbegins and ends with a data block representing the longer of the twosegments in the respective pair.
 5. A medium for representing at leasttwo program versions A and B of source material, the medium beingplayable on a player having a predefined data buffer managementsystem;(a) the data on the medium representing A-type segments ofA-version source material, B-type segments of B-version source material,and C-type segments of source material common to both of said at leasttwo versions, with the medium being adapted to be played on a playerwhich reads data representing C-type segments no matter which version ofthe source material is being played and data representing only A-type oronly B-type segments depending on which version of the source materialis being played; (b) data being interleaved on said medium to representA-type and B-type paired segments disposed between successive C-typesegments, with data representing each A-type segment and each B-typesegment in a pair being divided into a single series of interleaved datablocks with the lengths of the individual A-type and B-type data blocksbeing limited to allow the player on which the medium is played to skipover A-type data blocks without interruptions when version B of thesource material is played and to skip over B-type data blocks withoutinterruptions when version A of the source material is played; (c) witheach series of interleaved A-type and B-type data blocks being followedby data blocks representing just the following C-type segment.
 6. Amedium in accordance with claim 5 wherein a series of interleaved datablocks begins and ends with a data block representing the longer of thetwo segments in the respective pair.
 7. A method for formatting on aplayable medium digital data representing at least two versions of aprogram comprising the steps of:(a) interleaving in a single data streamdata sequences which are unique to each version and data sequences whichare common to the two of them; and (b) in order to achieve seamless playof both versions on a player that is compatible with the medium but haslimited buffer storage, limiting the lengths of the data segments whichare unique to each version to allow the player on which the medium isplayed to skip over the data sequences unique to the other versionwithout interruptions.
 8. A playable medium formatted with digital datarepresenting at least two versions of a program comprising:(a) a singledata stream containing interleaved data sequences which are unique toeach version and data sequences which are common to the two of them; and(b) in order to achieve seamless play of both versions on a player thatis compatible with the medium but has limited buffer storage, thelengths of the data sequences which are unique to each version arelimited to allow the slaver on which the medium is played to skip overthe data sequences unique to the other version without interruption.